Macau at Night

The casinos are all illuminated at night. The most spectacular casino, The Grand Lisboa, has an everchanging display of lights - playing cards, dice, roulette wheels, etc.. Pretty impressive!!

Ruins of St. Paul's Cathedral.

One of the landmarks in the older section of Macau is the ruins of St. Paul's Cathedral. The cathedral was built by Jesuits in the early part of the 17th century. Not far from the ruins, is Monte Fort. From Monte Fort you get a good view of both old and modern Macau.

Largo de Senado

Largo de Senado is the start of the more historic part of Macau. We really enjoyed wandering the busy streets. There is beautiful architecture and tasty items to sample and/or purchase in the local street markets. This part of Macau has a really nice laid-back feel about it.

While neither of us are good at gambling, we had to take a look inside the luxurious casinos.

Macau

On January 22, Joanne and I took the ferry to Macau. Although the day was quite foggy, we enjoyed the ride on a classy high-speed ferry. Macau is a very nice blend of modern and ancient. It is a gambling mecca and this is very evident ery near the downtown core of the city(the Las Vegas of the East). There is a lot of Portugese signage and the older buildings all have a definite European style.

The Ngong Ping 360

A recently constructed Gondola connects The Monastery with Tung Chung (near the Airport). They are developing an attractive tourist area near the Gondola. The Gondola ride offers spectacular views over Lantau Island! Once at Tung Chung, we were able to board the Metro (Subway) and were soon back in Hong Kong for our final evening in The Fragrant Harbour.

A Vegetarian Lunch

The Monastery was serving a vegetarian meal for quite a reasonable price. Here is a photo of Joanne sampling the delicious food.

The Wisdom Path

After viewing the Big Buddha, Joanne and I took a stroll along what is referred to as The Wisdom Path. Here we came across a series of large poles with Chinese Characters carved into them. They are arranged in a figure eight formation(infinity). Each pole has part of what is known as The Heart Sutra carved on it.

See if you can spot Joanne at the base of The Big Buddha. This will give you an idea of the size of this amazing bronze statue!!

Lantau Island

On Wednesday, January 21st, Joanne and I caught the ferry to Lantau Island. After an exciting bus ride of about 20 minutes, we arrived at the Po Lin Monastery. This is the home of the Tian Tan Buddha statue - the world's largest outdoor seated Buddha. This is definitely a site worth visiting - very impressive!! Here are a few photos of the Buddha and the surrounding area.

Xiang Gang at Night

After our walk along Nathan Road, Joanne and I enjoyed a Thai Dinner on Knutsford Terrace. We then walked back to the harbour and enjoyed taking the Star Ferry back across to Hong Kong Island. The city skyline at night time is spectacular!